


Interlude

by ILUCIDA



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Eremika - Freeform, F/M, eremikaweek, eremikaweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 16:10:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20951222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ILUCIDA/pseuds/ILUCIDA
Summary: There are things that can only be said when turning off the lights.Eremika Week day 01 – Jealousy.





	Interlude

He knew she would come.

Even if she hadn’t been looking for him in sleepless nights for a long time, he knew she would come to him that night.

He shifted restlessly as if waiting for the sound of her footsteps when he looked at the shadow that crept toward the bedside lamp. He shuffled aside, giving her space to sit quietly.

As children it was common for her to go to his bed after nightmares. The custom was practically abolished upon entering the survey corps, but there were days too difficult to bear, and not infrequently he drifted away for her to lie in his bed. And so he did again. Eren looked at her, staring at her straight profile and saw Mikasa close her eyes, gave a tired sigh and rested her head against the headboard.

“Will you go?”

She nodded placidly.

“If necessary.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“You, Armin, Historia… Everyone is willing to make sacrifices. I cannot act thinking only of my own desires. No longer…"

“Can’t you allow them to use you, that…”

“Nothing’s decided yet,” she interrupted. “Hange sees my going as a diplomatic gesture and opportunity to get to know the outside world with our own vision, but Zackly hasn’t manifested,” she mused and Eren stopped. Mikasa was not a soldier who could easily be dismissed, even temporarily.

“It wouldn’t be bad at all either.”

That information overwhelmed him. He was not prepared for such a betrayal.

“Do you _want _to go?”

Mikasa nipped her lip as if pondering, but nodded hesitantly.

“I can’t believe.”

“It could be interesting…”

“Of course, you can’t wait to be treated like a princess or something with your parties, jewels and that nonsense. Or was it Kiyomi’s promises to get boyfriends with stupid titles?”

“Eren, what are you talking about?”

“The damn purpose of this trip. But apparently you’re happy with that, aren’t you? ” Eren snorted with derision and Mikasa sighed in frustration.

“It has nothing to do with it. Just…” She sat leaning, looking serious. “There’s a dish with fish that only mommy made. Cylindrical cut with rice… I had never seen anywhere else. But Hiruzu’s embassy does not seem to eat anything else. Same about the raiment. I remember the clothes she sewed, some had the same cut on the collar that the women there wear. How many more things I don’t know? I would like to know the country of my ancestors. ”

"You talk like Kiyomi cares about what you want.”

She lay down staring at the ceiling.

“I have no illusions about this, nor am I willing to submit to the interests of others, if that’s what you want to know. However, there is no harm in not abhorring the idea.”

“But…”

She silenced his objection, lifting her head to her level as she propped her back on the pillow.

“I don’t want to think about that anymore,” she closed her eyes and he watched the circles around them, “Tomorrow we can, but not today, please.”

It shouldn’t be easy for her.

Mikasa hated change. She was methodical and a lover of routines. When they lived in Shiganshina and their mother asked to arrange the dispensation, she used to always order everything in the same place. The salt after the sugar next to the flour, which in turn was followed by the jar of cookies and nuts. She didn’t even seem to rationalize these operations, not bothering if he or Carla moved, yet eventually she would put them back in the same sacred order even if unconscious. It was natural to her.

She shifted lazily, putting one of her arms over him and he slid his hands over the dark strands away from her forehead.

“_You’re so beautiful.” _He heard Kiyomi’s voice haunt his thoughts and his mind returned to the events of that afternoon.

…

_“You should come with us to Hiruzu, to know our customs, our country.” Kiyomi proposed casually, setting the cup on the table._

_“I don’t think this is the right time,” Mikasa replied, sipping the tea she had invited to have in the apartment reserved for the ambassador._

_“I don’t say that for nothing.” She smiled kindly. "It would be interesting for Paradis to expand their zone of influence, I know many families who would be happy to meet you. Besides,” She took Mikasa’s hand, leaning into her.“You’re so pretty. Maybe you can’t find a fiancé?” And She laughed as if telling an unreasonable joke._

_Mikasa folded his hands in his lap._

_“It’s not something that I think.”_

_“I’m afraid not,” she agreed, “but it would be interesting if you thought. Nothing more solid than alliances formed under marriage, don’t you think? I talked to your commander and have some great Hiruzu clans in mind. Everything would be done by your choice if you agreed to come with me, of course.”_

_Eren clenched his fists, and before Mikasa thought of rehearsing an answer, he knocked on the ajar door no matter if he interrupted an important meeting._

_“Mikasa, the horses are ready. Hurry up,” he announced without ceremony, giving Kiyomi a rude look._

_Mikasa looked grateful, rising hastily_

_“I have to go”_

_“I see,” Kiyomi stood up, gesturing something that he learned to be courteous with her hands, “But please, think about my proposal. I would be genuinely happy if you visit our country for a few months. ”_

_…_

It was not the first time he had heard speculation about Mikasa’s future.

Those bastards.

Kiyomi looked at her like she was an opulent acquisition, while Zackly seemed to ponder which fate would be most advantageous. They wanted to use her in their political game. Take away her right to act for her own life, direct her decisions, and ultimately use her as she was a breeder of soldiers. Eren was seeing something like this happen to a dear person, but he could never bear to see it happen to her.

He traced the delicate face tracing the outline of her lips.

Yes, she was really beautiful. Yet once again that beauty threatened to be a curse.

He didn’t like to imagine where she would be if she hadn’t arrived on time. Probably having a miserable life running into rich men’s hands like a toy. It would not be so different if Kiyomi carried out her plan, uniting her with some clan noblewoman against her will, or if she stayed on the island to give birth to Ackermans soldiers.

She snuggled closer to him and his muscles tensed. Her breath skidded under his neck and the warmth of her hand held tight to his chest made him lose his mind, dragging his thoughts to shameful places.

“Mikasa, it’s late,” he called her with a pat on the shoulder. She looked at him confused and he quickly sat with his back to her.

“I’m sorry… I was sleepy,” she said blandly, rubbing her eye, then glared at him softly. “Don’t you find that nostalgic? It always happened in Shiganshina.”

Eren shook his head, “We’re not kids anymore.”

She backed away.

“That’s not it …” he came up noticing that she had misunderstood.

She waited, but he didn’t know how to correct himself.

Then he found frustrated that she had no idea at all. Maybe it was the habit of seeing him as a child or a younger brother. Someone she could sleep with without incurring vexatious situations.

Fortunately, no one else would see innocently that long-abandoned habit, and that’s what he remembered when he said, “Hange will be here early tomorrow.”

“And?” She leaned back against the pillows.

Eren bend toward her ignoring the inconvenience of his condition in order to find a humor line on her face.

Her lips parted in expectation caught his eye, and he looked away at the tattoo on his rib hand and involuntarily glued his fingers over the circles, skirting them.

“She could interpret it strangely.”

Mikasa seemed to consider “There is nothing to interpret, and even if it had it would be no violation.”

It was true that dating members of the corporation was not illegal, especially during their layoffs, and it was also true that there was nothing between them, but the way she dismissed the idea bothered him.

He leaned a little closer to her.

“Mikasa, what do you think people would think if they saw us now?”

Her breath hitched, and she instinctively tugged at the hand he caressed, but he didn’t back away keeping his hand on her rib, massaging it with gentle strokes.

She tried to keep her face placid, but throbbing in her chest betrayed her. All there was were stubborn green eyes, and those dark hair that she didn’t remember how it almost stopped at the shoulder.

“They would assume things that do not exist,” she replied, as if to defy him.

“But they would not be wrong to do it.”

“Of course, you would never see me like that, nor …”

“Contrary to what you seem to think, Mikasa. I am a man. And with eyes.” He smoothed the curve of her waist tightly,“Not a child or a priest.”

It was her turn to lean.

“Maybe I know that. And maybe I don’t care what Hange will think tomorrow. ”

Before he drew any reaction, she closed the distance between his lips.

They had a taste of night. Cold and soft as the twilight breeze, but there was a moment when all the lights seemed to turn on. Eren moved his lips down her neck and he stopped inhaling her scent, his hand held firmly over her torso, “Don’t go.”

He didn’t want to see her leave.

Not with Kiyomi, not to stop in some idiot’s arms.

The thought of her choosing anyone, someone who would have everything he always wanted, at times seemed the worst case scenario.

“I can not promise”.

“I know, I know,” he repeated, kissing the curve of her shoulders and going to her lips as if to ensure the merit of being the only one who could.

Mikasa tugged a strand of her hair back, wondering how to say that even if Hiruzu was an ocean od distace she would still come back.

She rose over him making him lie down.

And so he fell silent about any complaint to Hiruzu that night.


End file.
